11 Things You Should Be Every Day

You can be lots of things. What will you be today?

photo by It's Holly

photo by It's Holly

Some days I like to plan every minute. Other days I choose what I want to be and see where it takes me. It all depends on my mood and what’s already on my to-do list.

There are some things you can be any time. Whether you’re a Fresher or in your final year, fill your day by trying to be these things:

1. Be Seen

Make yourself visible. If nobody can see you, how do they know what you’re up to? Socially, academically, professionally…get on the radar! Speak to people, write a blog, get involved in something you feel strongly about, ask questions, create a portfolio, find somewhere or something new to explore.

2. Be Emotional

Robots don’t (currently) possess genuine feelings. You do. Make your strengths real by explaining how and why you feel the way you do. Emotions are nothing to be afraid of. Expressing yourself isn’t a problem, so long as you consider your response. You can be honest and clear and open without resorting to spontaneity.

photo by Camdiluv

photo by Camdiluv

3. Be Interested

When you’re interested, it brings out the best in people. My Dad used to go to jazz clubs and he saw some awful bands. So bad that it wouldn’t be a surprise if everyone just left or even started throwing things. But my Dad and his friends did something different. They showed increasing interest. They cheered the bands on. They gave time and attention to these acts and egged them on. And you know what? The majority of the time this allowed the band members to relax a little and improve their playing, or at least give a more hearty performance. Not everything works out at first glance, but a little time and interest can take you places you never imagined possible.

4. Be Helpful

Everyone has to start somewhere. If you see someone else trying to get over a hurdle you had to jump in the past, why not offer some advice or talk strategies with them? Your offer of help may benefit another, and you may just find that they’re able to help you in return. Even if nothing is obvious at the time, you’ve used an opportunity to make contact with someone who you may end up working with (or even competing with) further down the line.  A little bit of help can go a long way.

5. Be Sociable

Even when you can’t be directly helpful, it pays to get out there and enjoy those around you, even when you’re ‘on business’. Every meeting is an opportunity. Just as it’s important to be seen, it’s equally important to reach out and be social. Showing your face is one thing, holding out a welcoming hand is another.

6. Be Selective

The more you make yourself visible, the more that will become available to you. But it’s not all amazing. You need to be a filter to everything that comes your way. You are your own personal curator. You hold the key to what gets consumed and what gets thrown out. Being selective is harder than you think, because it can be hard to say no. It’s like when you get rid of clutter. There’s so much you want to keep for sentimental reasons or because it looks good or it might be useful later or…on goes the list of reasons. Being selective is a challenge, but it becomes easier the more you practice. Flex your selective muscle if you want to remain in control.

7. Be Prepared

On one side of prepared, you have pathetic. No preparation whatsoever. No attempt to engage or make the most of what you’ve got. On the other side of prepared, you have perfected. Every last detail scrutinised to within an inch of its life. Every moment of time spent getting something just right, even when time could have been spent better elsewhere. Try not to move too far away from prepared, because danger lies either side. To be prepared is to have an idea of what lies ahead, without obsessing about it or worrying that you’ve missed a minor detail. Without preparation, you have no idea at all and you risk things unnecessarily falling apart.

8. Be Individual

You may hold a view of something that nobody else agrees with. So be it. When you’ve got a hunch, don’t let opinions put you off. Research further. Even if it’s a long shot, give yourself a chance to explore what grabs you before you throw in the towel. Otherwise, you’ll always wonder.

9. Be a Team Player

Together we’re stronger. For all the work you’ll do alone, there are many times when you’ll need a helping hand. For all the specialisms you have, there are others with specialities you need that only they can provide. Don’t just be in the game for you alone; cast your net a bit wider and reap the benefits. You help others and others help you. Geddit?

photo by atomicShed

photo by atomicShed

10. Be Imaginative

Children want to be so many things every day. They want to be a teacher, an astronaut, a racing driver, a princess, a musician, a runner, a dancer, a builder, a shop-keeper, a statue, an animal, a friend, an explorer…

Have you still got a vivid imagination? I hope so!

11. Be Yourself

Of course you’re yourself. Who else would you be?

And that’s the point. The advice to ‘be yourself’ can be frustrating, because it doesn’t mean much in itself. My take is that it’s not worth comparing yourself to others, it’s not worth trying to copy someone else’s success routine, it’s not worth hiding behind an act because you think it’s what people want to see. You need others, but you don’t need to *be* others. To be yourself is to believe in yourself and what you have to offer.

photo by Will Foster

photo by Will Foster

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By being the things above, you’ll bring yourself closer to being whatever you want. So I’ll ask the question again: What will you be today?

How to pay attention in lectures

Lectures can get the better of you, no matter how much you want to pay attention. Actually, wait…No matter how much you need to pay attention.

Yes, at times it can feel like so much hangs on the lecture, but you still can’t manage to keep focus on the words.

photo by Tadeeej

photo by Tadeeej

Okay, so lectures aren’t quite that important (I’ll come back to that in my last point). Still, it’s useful to pay attention to them, whether or not you think they’re the best way to learn about a topic.

Here are my tips to stay switched on and in tune with your lecturer for an hour or two:

Get rid of disruptions

It’s easy to be distracted when something more enjoyable is there to entertain you. Commit to a move away from temptations. Switch off those moreish phone apps, ignore your social networks, and even move away from your mates if they take up too much of your attention in lectures. Whenever temptation is still within your grasp, you’re more likely to reach out and grab it.

Prepare beforehand

Ten minutes is all it takes to have a quick look online for a basic rundown of what you’ll probably encounter in the lecture. The lecture may end up being different, but your preparation will get you thinking about the subject in advance and help you focus on the content when you get in there.

Hopefully you’ll have a list of prior reading, handouts, and other information for you to prepare from. Once you start working with the subject matter, you’ll be less likely to switch off in the lecture.

Eat and drink wisely

If you attend a lecture too full or too hungry, you’ll suffer for it. No matter how busy you feel, find time to get the nutrients you need. Listen to your body and you’ll have a better job listening to your lecture.

Engage in your head

When you don’t get it, your brain can start to switch off. Don’t let it! Note what confuses you, write down questions you have, think whether this part of the lecture is crucial to understanding everything else.

If you’re just bored at a certain point, make sure you note the basic idea/concept down for later so you don’t miss out completely.

Get comfy!

Dress so you’re not too hot or cold in the lecture theatre. If you need to wear more/less outside, prepare for that instead of suffering in the lecture!

What if the seating arrangements are uncomfortable? Bring something to sit on, or find a different seat, or take less stuff with you, and so on. Your surroundings may not be the first thing you consider when it comes to lectures, but it can make a big difference to your attention.

Record the audio on your phone/music player/dictaphone

This should be done for your own personal use only and, even then, you should probably ask the lecturer in advance if they are happy for you to record their lectures (if they aren’t already recorded for you!). I don’t recommend this method as a regular thing, because you can get caught up in listening to the lectures more than doing your own work. Use as a failsafe only.

If you do, you can listen again at higher speeds on an iPhone or software like Windows Media Player and VLC Media Player. I used to listen at 1.4-1.7 times the speed and now frequently listen to podcasts and lecture recordings at 2 times the speed. An hour long lecture in half the time? Yes please!

Focus on your own thoughts rather than the monotonous voice

No matter how interesting the topic, a monotone can send you to sleep. I found the best way to stay awake was to think about my own reactions to what was being said in the lecture. I reframed each sentence or idea in my head so it felt like I was doing a lot of the talking.

That way, I felt more in control of my own focus. If the subject was boring that was one thing, but some topics suffered more from the voice than the content. At these times, focus as if you’re in control, like when you’re reading a book or doing private research.

This took a bit of practice and it did mean I might miss a bit as I went along, but it’s better than missing the whole lecture!

photo by arctanx.tk

photo by arctanx.tk

Relax or take a nap before the lecture

We all need time to relax, to wind down, and to find calm. I love powernaps and it’s worth finding out how much time works for you. We’re all different, meaning I like about 18 minutes and you may prefer 15 or 20. It’s worth finding your personal sweet spot. Many of the people I’ve spoken to who didn’t think powernaps worked for them found that they worked a lot better when they found the right length of nap for them.

If you don’t want to nap, it’s still worth taking time out to relax. As a recent Mind/Shift article on mindfulness states:

“Recent brain imaging studies reveal that sections of our brains are highly active during down time. This has led scientists to imply that moments of not-doing are critical for connecting and synthesizing new information, ideas and experiences. Dr. Michael Rich, a professor at Harvard Medical School put it this way in a 2010 New York Times article: ‘Downtime is to the brain what sleep is to the body.'”

The lecture isn’t *that* important

If you’re worried that you need to hang on every last word of a lecture, your stress levels are bound to shoot up and your concentration levels drop to the floor. Lectures help to frame a topic, make you aware of debates, and give you some of the academic nuts and bolts on your learning journey. Lectures are not for rote learning, even if there is a necessary element of it in some sessions. You are unlikely to fail miserably for missing a single, crucial point in a lecture. If it’s so important, the information will be elsewhere and will likely be repeated again.

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Some lectures are a slog, no matter what you try. Don’t beat yourself up about that. If it’s all too much, try to understand why. If it’s down to something you can change, try to make that change for next time. If it’s out of your control, either let it go or speak to someone who can help deal with the issue.

How do you cope with difficult lectures? What is the worst you’ve had to endure as you tried desperately to stay focused?

Be Selfish. Think About What Matters To You.

Is it time to selfishly shift your point of view?

photo by wonderferret

photo by wonderferret

As a student, the possibilities are endless. You’re offered so many views and given free reign to explore in any way you wish.

Do you make use of this as much as you think?

When three years are up and graduation looms, is it time to look for a job?

Or should your search have started before you even stepped foot on campus as a fresher?

Or should you forget traditional career paths and take a completely different route to suit what you want?

Focus on the future, the past, or right now? Or everything at once?

If it’s not already there, will you step up to the plate and make it happen?

If it’s flawed, are you in a position to help make it better?

What matters to you?

Go on. Be selfish for a moment. You might just find a way to help the world by helping yourself.

HE Marketing: Time to Stand Out, Not Fit In

Marketing is nothing new to universities. Decades ago, before fees and loans were on the table, money was being spent on how an institution looked to potential students and stakeholders.

Whether or not students consider themselves as consumers, the higher education sector is aware that appearance is important. Marketing will remain and will likely grow in terms of both use and cost. At the Warwick Higher Education Summit on 28 Jan 2012, Professor Bernard Longdon described how American for-profit institutions spend around 25% of their budget on marketing, yet only 10% on teaching. It appears that marketing pays.

photo by Angela Rutherford

Dressed to impress long-term or is it just window dressing? (photo by Angela Rutherford)

Brand realities must trump brand appearance.

The UK isn’t in the same place right now with such high marketing budgets, but I was left wondering about the best way universities can make an impression on applicants. In my eyes, we are in a time when identifying brand realities could help universities stand out far better than merely promoting a glossy and beautiful — and potentially misleading — appearance.

How did you imagine your university to be before you were a student there? Did that image change after you’d started?

We get it. Every university is brilliant. They’re all in the top 10% of universities… Students are happy and smiling, the buildings are marvellous, the surrounding area is beautiful, the atmosphere is delightful, and so on. And so on.

But where are the brand realities? It’s all too easy for brand appearances to take on generic views of excellence, quality and beauty rather than highlighting how one size certainly does not fit all.

Sauntson and Morrish suggest the lack of diverse voice resides even in mission statements, which appear “to be an indefinable kind of ‘branding’ in which concrete purposes and achievements are replaced by a symbolic avowal of the values of business and industry” (p.83). While mission statements are rarely viewed as important from the perspective of applicants, it is a concern that the search for a unique brand may be faltering on a wider scale.

The UK HE sector may require some institutions to specialise more than they currently do. This, in turn, would force a need to point out unique selling points even more urgently. But even if every institution stayed the same, there is already great diversity within the sector. At the Warwick HE Summit, both Sir Richard Lambert and Pam Tatlow agreed that HE doesn’t reside in a single size system. To emphasise the point, Lambert and Tatlow had plenty to disagree over, but not this. Tatlow explained that there is not one model to answer all questions and provide all solutions. In short, there is more than enough room to show true colours without looking out of place.

photo by maistora

Which solution fits you best? (photo by maistora)

Diverse or generic?

The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) recently reported that while the sector appears less diverse than ten or fifteen years ago, any change is relatively minor. As for the future, the HEPI report on institutional diversity warns of major changes “as growing market pressures come to bear on institutions”. In coming years, it will pay to stand out rather than fit in.

How useful, then, is it to be all things to all people?

Institutions have long been in a strangely favourable situation where applicants and those involved in guiding student choices will generally look to official literature as the first port of call. In some cases, the prospectus is left alone in favour of a university’s website or mobile app. Whatever gets chosen, this official marketing and information is consulted a great deal and won’t be ignored any time soon.

Given this, it pays to communicate where each institution is different.

I advise applicants to look beyond the marketing. Students cannot make a fully informed choice on this alone. But while universities continue to hold the attention of applicants at an early stage through their marketing and promotional material, it must help the individual as well as the institution. Pointing out brand realities is a great start. Upon this scaffold, universities can outline their purposes with conviction and everyone should benefit in the process.

University marketing must highlight unique traits and core focuses over a general approach. This will still allow enough room for a diverse set of wants and needs, which is far better than attempting to be an ‘everyman’ figure. Allowing for diversity is not the same as promoting universal appeal.